The National Election Committee yesterday announced a date for the election of district and city-provincial council members, a vote that will only be open to current commune council members, a vote that will only be open to current commune council members. NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha took href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/council-elections-will-lack-democracy-ngos/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Pailin Provincial Court on Wednesday charged four villagers with infringing on public property because they cultivated 684 hectares of land that the court says belongs to the state, but which villagers claim to have farmed legally since 1999, a rights worker said. The villagers were arrested href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/court-charges-four-pailin-villagers-for-violating-state-property/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Twenty-two families who have been locked in a bitter, seven-year dispute over 145 hectares of land in Kompong Chhnang province with a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem claim they were illegally pressured into accepting compensation and filed a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/kdc-families-want-compensation-deal-revoked/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced 13 men to prison terms ranging from five to nine years for plotting to overthrow the government in a case that was criticized by a human rights group as a political setup. The men were members of a self-styled Khmer href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-sends-13-to-prison-for-insurrection-plot/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A package containing charred human remains was delivered to the Cambodia National Rescue Party office in Phnom Penh yesterday morning. Despite a seeming complete absence of hard evidence, some are convinced the remains – found on Saturday at a mountain in Kampong Speu – belong to href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/mysterious-bones-stoke-conspiracy/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

In what looks to be a concerted push into the Southeast Asian energy sector, Japanese import and export conglomerate Marubeni Corporation has acquired a large stake of Cambodia’s power generation infrastructure. In a Tokyo Stock Exchange filing dated June 2, Marubeni announced it had purchased a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/japan-firm-buys-share-of-new-power-plant/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Kompong Chhnang provincial authorities allegedly locked villagers out of the provincial hall after dozens came to deliver a complaint against the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, before locking out a newly appointed councilor who left the building to talk with them. The villagers href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/villages-blocked-from-delivering-complaint/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Authorities in Svay Rieng town are ignoring locals’ complaints over a Chinese firm that has allegedly been filling in a river in preparation to build a canal, villagers said yesterday. More than 130 families in Svay Teu commune, Svay Rieng province, have delivered petitions to provincial href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/battle-over-river-in-svay-rieng/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distanced itself from Australia’s still unsigned deal to transfer refugees from the Nauru refugee detention center for resettlement in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. First raised in February, the cash-for-refugees deal is believed to be imminent. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/un-refugee-agency-slams-cambodia-australia-deal/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodian scholars have voiced their support to Chinese President Xi Jinping for his announcement of China’s contribution of 40 billion U.S. dollars for the establishment of a Silk Road Fund, saying that such a fund is vital for developing countries. Chheang Vannarith, senior researcher of href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodian-scholars-hail-chinas-contribution-to-silk-road-fund/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A spokesman for the Cambodian Parliament on Wednesday strongly denied that the country’s Parliament chief Heng Samrin has promised Vietnam to take strict measures to punish ethnic Khmer Krom activists who had held protests against a Vietnamese diplomat. The denial came after Vietnamese media reported Monday href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodia-parliament-denies-chiefs-promise-to-punish-khmer-krom-activists-for-protesting-against-vietnam/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Kratie city – Soldiers and military police yesterday blocked all access to a village where a 14-year-old girl was shot dead by security forces on Wednesday while the authorities launched a massive operation to evict hundreds of families from the area under a cloak of href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/kratie-village-sealed-after-girls-killing/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Construction of a special economic zone (SEZ) near the Vietnamese border in Ratanakkiri province’s eastern O’Yad­aw district is on track, but who exactly will avail of the facility and its services remains a mystery—even for senior provincial officials. The latest announced venture of agro-industry land concession href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/mystery-surrounds-ratanakkiris-first-special-economic-zone/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties are “narrowing their differences” in talks aimed at ending a standoff over recent elections, officials said Tuesday, as protesters ended three straight days of mass demonstrations against poll results. Both the leaders led their parties in the discussions, which were href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/cambodias-hun-sen-sam-rainsy-narrow-differences-in-election-stalemate/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

Three Vietnamese tourists were briefly detained on Saturday for flying a drone over the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, a week after a Hong Kong national was similarly arrested and released without charge for the same offense. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/vietnamese-tourists-released-after-drone-flies-near-palace/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A decade after the country’s domestic violence (DV) law was passed, the government continues to fail victims of abuse, a coalition of NGOs said in a statement released Friday, calling for the law to be amended. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/ngos-call-for-amendment-to-nations-domestic-violence-law/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Cambodian medical research­er has received international rec­ognition for a presentation on de­velopments in the treatment of pa­tients infected with both HIV and tuberculosis at a conference in France last week. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/researcher-recognized-for-hiv-tb-contribution/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A border official and a reporter gave drastically different accounts Sunday of events that transpired after a group of journalists was blocked as they attempted to visit the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province on Friday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/reporters-police-give-wildly-different-accounts-of-border-row/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A Trapaing Thlong prison officer in Kampong Cham was last week accused of demanding $150 to release a prisoner who had fully served his 10-year term, a charge the prison’s director rejected yesterday. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/prisoner-says-release-contingent-on-bribe/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...

A new draft of the proposed Telecommunications Law would give authorities the right to eavesdrop on any conversation, along with a host of other powers that a rights group has warned would effectively nationalize private service providers. href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/draft-telecoms-law-gives-govt-broad-spying-powers/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...